Turbine-engine.



w. PENNELL. TURBINE ENGINE APPLICATION FILED MAR. 21, 1908.

3atented Apr. 12, 1910 wn-uss as,

v sily be over 5000 ft. per second, yet no peripheralspeed of more than 1,500 ft. per

' vanes or blades.

tity of the light and hea vy To all whom it may concern:

co'11nty of Staff0rd,England;have:invented tliQQla'SS using gases as the working agent necessary peripheral speed (viz), half matter of practice 750 STATES" WILLIAM rnnnnnn pr wnnnnsnunx, ENGLAND.

fruiinrnn-nnernn.

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' Be it known that 1, WILLIAM a sub ect ofthe King of Great Britain, res-id.- mg at Clarkson Road, Wednesbury, in the a new and useful Turbine-Engine; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full,

clear and exact description of the same.

This invention relates to heat engines of producerotation directly without aid or reciprocating motion commonly known as steam or gas turbines.

Hitherto there have been'two great difiiculties inthe way of designing eii'icient tur biil'es'. "(1) In turbines ofthe reaction typje therotating parts or wheels have been subject to high temperatures and where ignited gas is the working-agent these temperatures areso high that practical working co'nd'r; tionsare almost unattainable. (2) in the impulse turbines-where the working gas is'sohigh'that a wheel cannot be run at the that of the issuing gas to secure economy. This" again is particularly the "casewith gas turhines.-

.The velocity of the expanded gases may turbine wheel has hitherto been run at a seoondfandat this speed the limit of safety has been reached, if not exceeded. -As a I it. per second is the limiting safe speed of a wheel carrying.

In the case of gas.tur-- loines of the impulse type a further dithcultyoccurs that the stream of gas must in the ordinary way be continuous, as the r0 tating' wheel cannot allow the varying ve locities of the gases, if the gases. issue in a series of puif's. This prevents economical use of the advantage of the explosion action. Heretofore'it has-been proposed to drive, turbine wheels by; a working-fluid and a driving fluid each o'fwhich is admitted into an expansion tube by a separate'annular valve with smallports; but in such thereis great'difliculty in admitting a definite quantity of such fluids asls'light;variations ofwill greatly alter the relative quanfluids as will'also Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed March 21,

r the a velocity gas left in the sues in filictuations" of pressure forcing such fluids r: n. I I huvier or' driving fiu1d;' and moreover the v h valves especially in the-case of the l ofjvalve admission tends to .split up Patented. A r; 12, 1910. 1908. Serial No. 422,455.

the working fluid into a spray if any rapid inlet of working fluid is attempted and thus cools the driving fluid and reduces the effi ciency. Such proposals would not however achieve the desired object of givin; to the fiuid before impinging on the whee a final definite velocity properly proportioned to of the wheel to be driven though they are "alleged to do so. It has also beenproposed to partially fill a-chamber with water loy suction arrangement by cooling products of combustion remaining therein from a previousexplosion by means of a spray. The chamber is rotated until it has been-provided with compressed gas'as a result of'the previous explosion acting upon an auxiliarypiston. In this case the result is 'as beforeuncertainty as to the amount of water in the chamber as thisdepends upon the amount of suction available. or in other words upon the heat of the exhaust gases, and also variation in'the compression of the new gas as it dependsflupon the strength of .70 comes opposite a combustion chamber which the previous explosion. Indeed one missfire will cause the'apparatusto stop work as the fluidchamber would be cool and there would be no filling action5 and there/would be no compression of the new gas.

According to'this invention 1 overcome the difiiculties'enumerated above, by preventing the free egress. of the compressed gases, interposing between definite measured quantities of the expanding gases and the point of the outflow, a plug or stopper of water or other fluid-of definite weight,

which fluid has been previously measured into a chamber. The gases are released in a series. of .pufl'is indefinite quantities, and

.' such portion of expanding. gas is caused definite measured to drive before it the plug or stopper of fluid along an expanslon pipe, at the outer end of'which thefluid isthe form of a jet, and is caused to give its energy, say by impinging upon the turbine wheel. The expanding gases also follow the water :jet and may in turn do useful work. This plug ofwater or the/l ke acts as a'free piston and a-tta ins a definite velocity proportional to the mass. I am thus enabled to obtain any I ity by proporti oning the weight oi the water to the energy, which can be obtained from the expandinggas. The velocity may of desired jet veloccourse be made enormously lower than that p pansion tube, these charges" of .pulley 5 on its crank ax 'where it is explode 14, or high compression or other suitable cylindrical or other. s water feeder l7 havin atwhich the gases would travel if allowed free egress.

' This invention may be generally described as the means for rotating a turbine wheel by a series of plu s of fluid rapidly discharged onto a Wheel y means-of an exlugs being position between a riving fluid admission and the expansion tube; the said lugs con.- sisting of a definite amount of fluid delivered. to the necessary discharge position, as .distinguished from the previous attempts in which the fluid has been allowed to flow into the expansion tube or has been allowed to partially fill a chamber with the disad vantages previously stated. I arrange by suitab e'mechanism that a succession of gas and water are presented to the e ansion tube in rapid succession, so maintaining a continual action. J Referring to the drawin s,. the Pelton wheel 1 is mounted on its ax e 2 in suitable chamber 3 and is driven in manner now described. Arranged at a suitable distance from this wheel is a com ressor 4 having a e 6 whereby it is driven fromthe pulley 7 on Peltonwheel axle 2, by the driving belt 8; though any be employed for operating said compressor. On the crank axle 6 is a crank disk 9 whereby the piston 10 is operated through the piston rod 11 for the pressing theexplosive mlxtureadmitted through the valve 15. Upon compression, the mlxture is forced through the valve 12 into the explosion c li-ndcr or chamber 13 cl by the sparking plug means.

Adjacent to the e plosion chamber is a itable shaped fluid or a water cylinder or achamber 18 designed tb plosion cylinder when the feeder is in its lowest position. This feeder 17 is actuated from suitable crank disk 19 to which it is connected by piston rod '20, said crank disk being driven from the aforementioned disk 9 to which it is connected by the link- 21. Thus, the compressor and the feeder work together, the piston being up, or at full compression when the feeder is in its lowest position '2'. 6. with its cylinder 18 reglstering with the explosion cylinder. In alinement with the explosioiricylinder and in alinement with water cyl nder 18 when same is in the position on the drawings, is an expansion tube 23 one end of whichisagainst the feeder 17 whilexthe other end enters the wheel casing 3 and is arrangedto feed on to the buckets of the Pelton wheel.

Suitable proportions and pressures for the working of this engine are calculated to square inch. fed into a.

purpose of com-.

register with-the exbe, explosion cylinder and water cylinder of equal v olume with the volume of the expans on tube twelve times as great as either; whlle the compressor is designed to compress the explosion mixture to 120 lbs. per 7 Then assuming the engine to be in the position shown upon the accompanying. drawings, the 'water cylinder 18 is filled with a suitable fluid, or the like, as water, and as same comes opposite the 7 explosion chamber the previously com-' pressed explosion mixture is ignited. The energy obtained by the expansion from the explosion is absorbed by the water plug in cylinder 18, as kinetic energy and the water 8 plug is propelled through the expansion tube, and it impinges upon the buckets'of the Pelton wheel, which is-thereby driven. By making the parts of the proportions stated 2'. e. the total volume of expansion tube, water cylinder and gas cylinder of fourteen times the volume of the gas cylinder alone, it is calculated that when the water plug has left the expansion tube then the gas is at or near atmospheric pressure. Also I calculate that the velocityof the water as it issues will be about 300 to 350 ft. per second, so that the peripheral speed of the wheel need only be'about 150 .to 175 ft. per second, equal to about 1,000 revolutions per minute on a 3 ft. wheel. To show the importance of this invention I would state that, allowing free egress, the speed of gases would have been of the order of 5,000 t. per second and to secure economy the wheel would be required to run at 2,500 ft. per second peripheral velocity, equal to 16,000 revolutions per minute on a 3 ft. wheel, a speed which is practically impossible. The gases in the expansion tube either follow the water plug and do useful work. upon the wheel or are driven out by the next water' plug with the same result. The arrangement for successively feeding a plug of water to the expansion position as 1 shown on the drawings consists of a feed pipe 26 with which the water cylinder 18 registers when in its highest positlon as shown by the dotted lines on the drawings. lVater is forced through this pipe by the 1 centrifugal pump 27 drlven from the Pelton wheel by the belt 28, the feed to said pump being wholly or partially from the'b se of the wheel casing 3, by pipe 29. Th s when the water cylinder reachesits highest 1 position it is filled by the feed'pipe in manner described, and the overflow water and gas being drained back to the wheel casing by the pipe 30. An exhaust pipe 31 is provided for the discharge of the gas from 1 the wheel chamber. The following great advantages are ob tained by this invention :-(1) A very th1ck expansion reducing the loss of heat to the expansion tube or cylinder and water plug. 1

long expansion tube enabling me to use, quantity, to be received by the expansion economically ,ahighnitial. pressure without tube, mea'nsfor completely filling said chamthe' disadvantage ot increased'costjmet with her with fluid, and means for supplying gas .in reciprocating engines. (3) A definite and under pressure to drivethe plugs of fluid, fixed velocity 0t et exactly proportional to 7, upon delivery asaforesaid, intoand along the wheel velocity allowingthe use, ifdesaid expansion tube to the wheel; sired, o the BXPlOSlQDif or.. pufl system. 3. Ina turbine engine, the combination of I nols c'onfine the material 'of which the a driving wheel, an expansion tube for con-- plug "'1s made,z' to water, although 'I. pres veyingplugs of fluidfto said wheel, a fluid fer .to use it, .but' nay' use mercury or any 1 plug feed chamber for successively 'deliverother flu1d' or even se'misollds, or powders ing plugs of fluid, of definite and measured as mechanical censiderations alone 'deter quantity, to'be received by said expansion vlri ne the material to be-used tube, means for completely filling-said chamnvention has' no reference to any ber with fluid, means for supplying gas unpartmula'r ,gasesj'orfto the means of 'produc- ,der pressure, and'means for igniting said ing theg'a's under 'p'ressure.' Imay apply it to gas, to drivethe-plug's of fluid, upon delivsteam 'orJanyother gases'and may'use, the -ery-as aforesaid, into and along said expan- 4 ssuing" plug or'jet in any. 'way toobtain the sion tube to the wheel.- {desired result and may use anynumber of 4:. In a turbine engine, the combination- 0f [such ets-actingon one machine in'order'toa" driving wheel, an expansion chamber, a producean even-turningimomentr fluid plug feed chamber, locatedbet'ween the. 7Q. Th'e ;;term fluid lug ;f:eed chamber expansion chamber and the wheel, for sucmeans-,={ throughouthis specification, a cessively delivering plugs of fluid, of defichamb er,-'or'-the like,- of definite size, ar-' nite and measured quantity, to a position to ranged vt o-beplaced in communicationwfih be driven therefrom toward the driving apipe,--orf-a'jch amber, carrying the. fluid for wheel, means for completely filling the last asutficienttime tobecome completely filled named chamber with fluid, and. means for thereby. ,1 Thereupon, itis fed o'rmoved to. delivering gas to said expansion chamber.- another position, whereat the definite quan- 5. In a'turbine engine, the combination of tity of fluid is tube forced ,or-blo'wn out, and driving wheel, a fluid plug discharge ap the chamberl aft'erw ard fed back to the fill- ,paratus-for delivering plugs of fluid to said..80 in position. i 'wheel,-a'. fluid plug feed chamber for succeshat-I claim'then g I sively delivering plugs of fluid, of definite -1. In aturbine engine, the combination of andmeasured quantity, to a position to be a driving-wheel, means for delivering defidriven into said discharge apparatus,.means nite, amounts of gas under pressure to a po- .for completely filling said chamber (H1185 "sition for operating upon fluid, a fluid plug fluid, and means for supplying an expanslble feed chamber, {for successively delivering driving fluid to propel each said plug from plugs of fluid, ofdefinite and measured the chamber and into the discharge appa- Quantity, to a position to be driven bysaid ratus. v as iunder'gjpressure, means for completely In testimony. whereof, Ihave signed my filling-said chamber with fluid, and means name to thisspecificat on' n the'presence of v for conveyin the fluid to the driving wheel. two subscribing witnesses. v 1 f '4Q2..-In.a tur ine engine,-the'combination of -WILLIAM FENNE'LL. a driving: wheel, an expansion tube for con- WlfiIlQSSQSI I vey'in 'plugs' of fluid-to said wheel, a fluid HAROLD H. FORESTER, pluge NORMAN S. BARLOW.

2) A high ratio of expansionby usinga ing plugs of fluid, .ot definite and measured ed chamber for successively deliver- 

